Peacekeepers from Bangladesh killed in attack on Kadugli that Sudanese army blames on RSF paramilitary.
Published On 13 Dec 202513 Dec 2025
|
Updated: 10 minutes agoUpdated: 10 minutes ago
Click here to share on social media
share2
A drone attack has hit a United Nations facility in war-torn Sudan, killing six peacekeepers, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
The attack on Saturday hit the peacekeeping logistics base in the city of Kadugli, in the central region of Kordofan, Guterres said in a statement.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Eight other peacekeepers were wounded in the strike. All the victims are Bangladeshi nationals, serving in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).
“I strongly condemn the horrific drone attacks that targeted the United Nations peacekeeping logistics base in Kadugli, Sudan,” Guterres said in a statement.
“Attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law,” he added. “Attacks as the one today in South Kordofan against peacekeepers are unjustifiable. There will need to be accountability.”
The Sudanese military blamed the attack on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group at war with the army for the control of the country for more than two years.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
The attack “clearly reveals the subversive approach of the rebel militia and those behind it,” the military said in a statement. The military posted a video on social media showing plumes of dense black smoke over what it said was the UN facility.
Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus in a statement said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, and put the toll at six dead and eight wounded.
He asked the UN to ensure that his country’s personnel were offered “any necessary emergency support”.
“The government of Bangladesh will stand by the families in this difficult moment,” Yunus added.
The oil-rich Abyei is a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, and the UN mission has been deployed there since 2011 when South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan.
Guterres also called for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan to allow “a comprehensive, inclusive and Sudanese-owned political process” to settle the conflict in the northeast African country.
Sudan was plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country. The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people – a figure rights groups consider a significant undercount.
The fighting has recently centred on Kodrofan, particularly since the RSF took control of el-Fasher, the military’s last stronghold in the western region of Darfur.
The war has wrecked urban areas and has been marked by atrocities, including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings which the UN and rights groups have said amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur.
The war has also created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and pushed parts of the country into famine.
The attack comes just a month after the United Nations Security Council voted to renew a UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the peacekeeping mission in the oil-rich disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, for another year.
Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping missions, and its troops have long been deployed in Abyei. UNISFA’s peacekeeping mission was first deployed in 2011.
The 4,000 police and soldiers of UNISFA are tasked with protecting civilians in the region plagued by frequent armed clashes.
